Pinterest Basics: How to Set Up Rich Pins for Your Blog

Pinterest is a major source of blog and e-commerce traffic. With 2 billion monthly searchesand counting… why aren’t you on Pinterest yet? :p

Setting up a Pinterest account for business is simple and easy.

But there’s one more techy thing you need to do to set up your account for success and that’s enabling rich pins.

What are rich pins?

Rich pins are pins that include extra information. Pinterest draws this extra info from ‘markup’ on your site. (yes, that means code)

Should you bother with rich pins? Yes! Here’s why:

If you make changes, the rich pin info will change too!

Rich pins look more professional.

Pinterest has more information to go on when it comes to putting your pins into the Smart Feed or in search results.

Types of Rich Pins

There are four types of rich pins:

App pins – these pins include an install button so viewers can download apps right inside Pinterest. (Not covered in this post)

Article pins – these pins are perfect for bloggers!

Product pins – if you’re an Etsy seller or have a Shopify store, this one’s for you.

Recipe pins – food bloggers, these are for you!

How to Set Up Rich Pins

There are only two steps to setting up rich pins:

Apply the right markup to your site, and

Apply for rich pins on Pinterest.

If you shudder at the thought of touching code, don’t worry, I’m right there with you. There are tools that make this process really, really easy.

How to Set Up Article Type Rich Pins

Bloggers – you’re lucky! Setting up article type rich pins is insanely easy. Here’s how to do it using Yoast SEO.

Click on SEO in the WordPress dashboard.

Click on Dashboard.

Click into Features.

Scroll down until you reach Advanced Settings Pages. Switch this to Enabled.

Scroll down and hit Save Changes.

Now click on SEO again and you should see a new option called Social in the list. Click it.

Click into the Facebook tab.

Make sure that Add Open Graph metadata is Enabled.

Hit Save Changes.

How to Set Up Product Type Rich Pins

One of the best variants of the rich pins is the Product type. Rich Product pins display the price of your item! Even better, if you change the price on your website, the price will automatically change on your pin.

And… it’s really easy to set up.

If you’re trying to add Product pins for:

Etsy

Teachers Pay Teachers

Ebay

Your pins will automatically become rich with product information within 24 hours. So… you don’t need to do anything.

If you’re on Shopify, you can proceed directly to the Rich Pin validation step.

How to Set Up Recipe Rich Pins

Recipe rich pins are pretty important – Pinterest now allows users to refine their recipe search by cooking time, ingredients, and diet.

Your Theme

Some premium food blogging themes will automatically markup your recipes. If you’re not sure, check with your theme’s help desk.

Validate Your Pins

The next thing you need to do is visit the Pinterest Rich Pins Validator. You only need to enter the URL of one page of your site ONE TIME for all your pins to become rich pins.

Enter one URL from your site into the field.

Click Validate.

Correct any issues you see and select the option that corresponds to your page markup (it’s probably HTML).

Click Apply Now. Your rich pins should be enabled within an hour.

Shopify – Paste in the link to your product and add “.oembed” to the end of your link. Make sure to pick Shopify when you apply.

Enter the URL of one of your pages that you’ve added markup to then click Validate.

Correct any issues with the metadata and select the option that corresponds with the way you’ve marked up your page.

Click Apply Now.

Your pins will become rich pins within the hour.

If you find you’re getting an error, check that you’ve followed this guide to the letter, keep trying, and if you’re still having no luck, contact Pinterest support.

I found that it took several tries over the course of two weeks for my new blog’s pins to become rich.

Persevere!

Now that you’ve enabled rich pins…

Why not learn how to set up your Pinterest foundation properly? Check out my free e-course Pinterest Power Up!

Hi, I'm Cath

Blogger. Freelance Writer & Pinterest Manager. Mom of one. Keeps me busy! I’m also a corporate escapee, determined to help moms create options so they can stay home with the little ones and contribute to the family finances.